Virender Sehwag was recently featured in a podcast hosted by an India YouTuber Ranveer Allhabadia named ‘The Ranver Show’. Sehwag gave many insights about the team that consisted of superstars like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Harbhajan Singh. His podcast became the latest cricket news and was trending on Youtube.
Sehwag had a prolific international cricket career, playing for India in 104 Tests, 251 ODIs, 19 T20 Internationals, and helping the team win the T20 World Cup (2007) and ODI World Cup (2011). Sehwag has made a significant impact for India in Test matches. In addition to his two centuries in the longest format, Sehwag’s aggressive style in Test matches has helped the team put immediate pressure on the opposition and has guided India to some memorable victories in the whites. Whenever Sehwag scored a hundred or a quick cameo, the match prediction was heavily skewed in favor of team India.
In a conversation with well-known YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, Sehwag reflected on how he would have scored more runs if Ishant Sharma, the game’s 11th batsman, hadn’t persuaded him to take a single. The initial query concerned unfavorable influences in the locker room, and Sehwag began his response by criticizing players for being “selfish,” using his interaction with Ishant as an illustration.
Sehwag spoke about the incidence
“Bad vibes are in the sense that some want to score runs but want others to fail. Growing up, I’ve always wanted both, the opponent and I, to score runs. Whoever is better will eventually be selected. Why should I get selfish?” Sehwag said as he began the story.
“Let me tell you a story. I was batting on 199. Ishant Sharma was my partner. I knew Ishant couldn’t play out Muralitharan and (Ajantha) Mendis. I could’ve been selfish that time, I could’ve taken a single to reach my 200 and give Ishant the strike. But I played out five deliveries against Muralitharan and took a single off the last ball.
“Ishant came to me and said, ‘Bhaiya, I will play. You’re getting scared for no reason’. I said okay, I scored 200, took a single, reached 201 and gave him the strike. Ishant couldn’t survive two balls. Then I asked him, ‘So you played them out? Are you done?’
“Here, I was thinking that I can add more runs to the scoreboard and he said he will play them out. It wasn’t important for me to score 200. All I wanted was to be at the strike and score as many runs as possible for the team. So, I didn’t have that selfishness,” Sehwag said.
